


Staying up 'til sunrise

by moondust_jeno



Category: The Wayhaven Chronicles (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: Chronic Illness, F/F, Fluff and angst kinda, One Shot, The Wayhaven Chronicles, Wayhaven, twc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-24 01:07:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30064314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moondust_jeno/pseuds/moondust_jeno
Summary: Madeleine knocks on Morgan's door and it leads to Maddie revealing a bit more about herself...CW: mention of blood, chronic illness
Relationships: Female Detective/Morgan (The Wayhaven Chronicles)
Kudos: 12





	Staying up 'til sunrise

Morgan's hearing focuses when she realizes her steps are getting closer. How she knows they’re hers, Morgan couldn’t possibly explain it. Maybe it’s simply because they’re accompanied by that heartbeat she has grown accustomed to. Maybe it’s something else entirely. She just knows they’re hers and that's enough to put a grin on her face. 

As Madeleine stops in front of her door, Morgan can hear the ruffling of her nightgown and her grin widens - she's hoping it’s the green one. The one she had once seen on Maddie's clothes rack. The one with the see-through fabric that ends with lace. Maddie's heartbeat is faster than usual, but Morgan just assumed it was because of the girl's apprehensive nature. How many times had she heard her pace in front of her room before deciding that maybe Morgan wouldn't be bothered to see her. The vampire is at the door, waiting for the knock that will announce Madeleine is ready. 

She takes a few steps back into the corridor and Morgan tries to ignore the tinge of disappointment growing in her chest at the thought that she's going away. But Maddie stops in the corridor, lets out a wince of pain. Morgan's hand reaches for the doorknob. What if she needs help? What if Morgan had mistaken the faster heartbeat for Madeleine's usually anxious one? But Maddie is back in front of the door. And the knock finally comes. 

Morgan tries not to tear the door open, to appear laid back. “It’s late. Shouldn’t you-” the words get caught in her throat as she takes in the sight. “Sweetheart?”

Madeleine is leaning onto the door frame, barely able to stand, and to say she looks exhausted would be an understatement. 

The eye bags, that had been carefully concealed with makeup this afternoon, betray the fact that she hasn’t slept in a few days. She’s covered in sweat and her already pale skin is now paler than Adam’s. Her usually wide smile is gone and instead the corners of her lips barely lift as Morgan opens the door. 

“Do you know...um,” she stops, and Morgan can almost see the screws turning inside her head as her brain lags. She starts panicking. Her mouth opens for words which don’t want to come out but she finally manages to mutter “I need medicine...”

“I’m not sure if we have any, but I can ask Nate.”

“No!” Madeleine presses a hand on her stomach with a wince. “I’ll be fine...thanks anyway.”

She turns away but before she can take a step, Morgan grabs her wrist. 

“What do you need, sweetheart?”

“Would you mind going to my apartment?" With the look she gives her, Morgan can tell she'd been hesitating over that question probably for at least half an hour and Morgan can't help but wonder how long she had been in pain before she decided asking for help was the best option. That look tells her Maddie would have gone herself if only she wasn't in that state. So Morgan only nods and Maddie continues. "There is a pillbox in the cupboard above the bathroom sink, take that. It should be full but if it’s empty...Do you have some paper and a pen?”

Morgan shakes her head and Maddie heads towards her own room where she settles behind her desk. She rips a piece of paper from her sketchbook and writes down a small list of medicines before handing it out to Morgan with the keys to her apartment.

“I’ll be back,” Morgan says, and before she can stop herself, she is landing a kiss on the top of her head. She quickly heads for the door but when Maddie calls her name, she turns around.

“Thank you.”

*******

“So, want to talk about it?”

After Morgan had come back, holding the mushroom shaped pillbox - _ of course it had to be mushroom shaped _ \- she had flopped down on Madeleine's bed. She waited for her to take her medicine with a glass of water and crawl back under the bed sheets.

Morgan didn’t usually stay long in her room, Maddie knows her room is a lot to take in so she never blamed her for it. She hasn't been around long enough to change stuff in her warehouse room to accommodate her like she did in her apartment. But Maddie also knows that even though she tries not to show it, Morgan is worried right now. 

Her answer takes a while to come. Not because she doesn’t trust Morgan. She knows she will listen, Morgan always does. She's just not sure she’s ready to talk about it but she also knows this is bound to happen again if the woman stays in her life. So she takes a deep breath and starts.

“When I was 16, I was diagnosed with a chronic illness. I was getting sick every 2 days: stomach pain, blood, fever, the whole thing. That wasn’t pretty to see." Maddie's tone is clinical, and if Morgan didn't know her better she would think talking about it is nothing, but she can picture Madeleine rehearsing what she was going to say for the half hour she had been gone and probably even before she came to her room."We tried a few treatments before we found one that finally worked and it got better. But I still get sick, have bad days, sometimes bad weeks and this week is a bad one.”

“Why isn’t it on your file?”

“I guess because Rebecca doesn’t know. She wasn’t there when I got diagnosed and I never told her.”

“But she’s-”

Morgan doesn’t have to finish her sentence, Maddie knows how awful it sounds. She remembers the sleepless nights in their empty house. The meltdowns in the hospital's parking lot. The hours spent on google, looking up every word she didn't understand on her blood tests. The days and nights spent on the bathroom floor. Her mother's calls when she received a text from the school because Madeleine had forgotten to forge Rebecca's signature on her leave of absence. She remembers sobbing over help that would never come because she was alone in this. 

Of course, she could have told Rebecca, but what help would it be? She had let Maddie go through Rook's death on her own so she would have never cared enough to help her go through that. So she never told her. She even begged Elidor not to put it in her file when he discovered it. 

Madeleine didn't realize Morgan had pulled her into her arms until she pressed a kiss on her forehead. 

"You don't have to go through this alone, not anymore…"

If Maddie wasn't exhausted she would have cried at Morgan's words.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know how I feel about this. It's been sitting in my drafts for so long and i didn't have the guts to finish it because of how personal it is. I hate this but I hope someone will like this.


End file.
